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Spiegel Online has published an interview with Joschka Fischer, the former German Foreign Minister.  The interview is titled “The U.S. President Is Destroying the American World Order” and Fischer does not mince any words.

DER SPIEGEL: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that we can no longer truly rely on the U.S.

Fischer: It’s even worse than that. The American president is deliberately destroying the American world order. I was used to NATO being attacked by the left wing of the Green Party, but not by the American president! From an economic policy point of view, Trump is challenging Germany’s business model, which has been geared toward exports from the very beginning. Many are saying that we shouldn’t put up with that. I find this reaction understandable, but also kind of cute. What can we do? Given the current balance of power, sometimes all you can do is gnash your teeth.

DER SPIEGEL: You recently wrote a book in German with the dark title “The Descent of the West.” Is the West finished?

Fischer: There is every indication that this will happen. The West was the trans-Atlantic area, and its founding fathers were Britain and the United States. The West cannot survive without them, and certainly not with a weak, divided Europe. This is why Europeans must become stronger, much stronger.

The interview is truly grim and if Germany gives up on the liberal world order, there will not be any real check on the rise of an authoritarian world order.

The New National Football League Rule on the National Anthem: Shades of 1934

It appears as if financial markets are not encouraged by the Italian coalition government being proposed.  The difference between the yields on Italian bonds and those of German bonds suggests that investors fear that the Italians are likely to mismanage their economy and will hasten a move for Italy to leave the euro.   Reuters explains the danger: “Italy’s 2.3 trillion euro ($2.7 trillion) debt – the world’s third-largest and equivalent to more than 1.3 times the domestic output – makes the country vulnerable.”  If global economic growth slows down, there is a good chance that some Italian banks will collapse and the European Central Bank is prohibited from bailing them out.